Our independence day, August 14, is barely few days away, but we can hardly observe our national flags anywhere whether on buildings, workplace and vehicles of the people.
Where is my national flag? The answer of the question is very easy and obvious. It has now been kept in our cupboards or any safe place, which was hoisted for three or four weeks yesteryear as part of symbolic celebrations. We do it every year, we use Pakistan’s flag and keep it for next year because it is sacred thing for us or perhaps it is useless to hoist national flag throughout the year.
Majority of people in our country hoist our national flag on the top of their homes. Some of them on vehicles and few like to place it at their work places, other than government offices and some other national institutions, as identifications of state organs.
I don’t see any national flags in the biggest city of the country, where I live, but I everyday observe plenty of flags of different political and religious parties in various nooks and corners of the city.
Multicolored and giant-sized flags are all around in Karachi, depicting areas of political and religious parties in the city. These flags are replaced quite a few times in the year and the political workers never forget their duty. It is due to the fact that if one party leaves the position vacant, then other parties will hoist their flags on those places. Sometimes even clashes are reported between two parties on this issue of positioning their flags, particularly during election campaigns.
Pakistan’s flag is the flag of the Crescent and the Star, Parcham-e-Sitāra-o-Hilāl, which depicts multi-ethnic, multilingual and multi-religious society of the country. Few political parties have flags which resembles with the national flag. Some of them have green color in the flag while some of them have crescent and star on their flags. But there are some flags of political and religious parties, which show a totally different look, depicting different descriptive ideologies and goals.
It is also unfortunate that at the time of independence day celebrations, people prefer to carry the flags of their political parties rather than the national flag. Even in UK and Australia, Pakistanis hold flags of their respective political parties instead of country’s flag particularly during Cricket matches. We might be supporters of different political parties with different identifications inside the country, however, we are Pakistanis first when we are outside our country. We should keep that in mind.
So much for the flags, even the pictures of our national leaders are not seen at any traffic signal, billboard, banner, poster and electricity poles in the city. But you can abundantly see the pictures and quotes of our political leaders on different walls in the city.
A very famous place in Karachi, Naumaish Chowrangi, situated near Mazar-e-Quaid is undoubtedly a terrific spot to see flags of political parties, along with portraits of their respective leaders. I have never seen the portrait of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal there, perhaps people remember them in their hearts.
Now coming to offices of provincial and district governments, you will see multiple flags there too, and photos of leaders from different political parties. The same could also be observed in government hospitals, official guest houses and residential societies. Same is the case in government colleges and universities, where student wings of the political parties give a diversified political canvas of the country. However, no political party seems to remember Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal.
This year on Independence Day is coming in the special holy month of Ramadan as if it was at the time of Independence. Hence we should celebrate the day with traditional zeal and enthusiasm and renewed our faith in Allah to serve the God-gifted country and the land of true Muslims.
Love Pakistan. Love Pakistan’s flag!
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